Chapter 14

Minoru cried out more from shock than the unexpected pain as he was thrown around like a pinball. Dust had found its way into his eyes and tiny shrapnel from the exploding concrete floor ripped open the tiny boy's side as his back crashed into the ground. He coughed and screamed as the battle around him continued to rage on.

Through the haze of tears he could make out Todoroki's giant, red flames and Bakugou's white explosions as they tried to bring down the abominable beast that had interrupted their sports festival. The earth was shaking, people were rushing to and fro and the ambient noise was giving him even more of a headache than the fall had, but despite this pandemonium there was only one question echoing in his head:

Why was he doomed to die a virgin?

It just wasn't fair! UA highschool was supposed to be safe, yet villains were attacking him for the second time this month! Maybe the delectable skin-tight costumes of his female classmates could be worth the trouble, but that bitch of a teacher had forced him into therapy! As if he needed to be cured of his enthusiasm for the objectively best part of female anatomy! Dreaming of squeezing them was a natural part of every healthy male.

Now Minoru would surely meet his end before he even got the chance to touch them! In contrast to most others in his class he was neither strong nor fast. The sticky balls on top of his head were all he had. Confronted with a monster that could shrug off buckets of caustic acid and meter long ice-spears, what could he do?

Everything hurt, the world was spinning and Minoru knew that death would claim him any moment-

"Stand up, Mineta!"

What?

"Are you deaf? Stand up! Ribbit!"

A hand roughly grabbed his uninjured arm and yanked him upwards with surprising strength.

"Get yourself together! Ribbit! We need to get out of here!" roared the normally quiet Asui over the sounds of carnage in the background.

He stammered an affirmative and used his torn school uniform to hastily clean his eyes a bit. The cute frog girl had saved Minoru once; maybe he would get to touch her again when she carried him on her-

"Help me carry her! Ribbit! The noise is too much for her!"

Finally he noticed the twitching girl slung over her shoulder. Jirou seemed to be pretty out of it if her rolled up eyes and bleeding ears were any indication. Normally he would have used that opportunity to measure her non-existent bust some more, but at this point he simply wanted to get out of this hell as fast as possible.

Distributing the weight of the deliriously moaning girl between them was rather difficult considering Asui's and Minoru's height difference, but they somehow made it work. On their way to where the frog girl believed the nearest exit to be they had to occasionally dodge another student or falling debris, however the now visible edge of the arena gave him hope that this nightmare would come to an end soon.

Unfortunately the beast responsible for this entire mess decided that they would make good targets for its mindless aggression and charged them from the side with a screech. Minoru barely had time to turn his head and open his mouth to yell for help before a black fist came down on him.

People say that memories of one's life resurface in the last few moments of existence...

That many sinful people regret their wrong choices over the course of their life...

Not Minoru though...

He could only think of how pleasantly relieved his bladder felt all of a sudden.

The Nomu's clawed fist approached his frozen face with the force of an oncoming freight train until-

"Thump-Crack!"

-it broke on a hovering, translucent barrier that appeared in front of him out of thin air!

A silvery hexagon made from what appeared like pure, rippling energy stopped the grizzly appendage in place. Only a heartbeat later more shining shields slammed into the creature, giving it no time to scream as they shredded its wings and cut off its legs.

The malformed fist that had nearly pulped him and the girls lowered just in time for the barrier to crumble into glittering shards, much like a glass pane shattering under pressure. Simultaneously a tiny, although no less silvery glowing, object smashed into its torso and broke the Nomu's ribs with an audible crack.

One after another the shimmering blades stuck inside its black flesh twisted sideways, causing the bulging muscles to nauseatingly rupture and burst. Thick, steaming blood splattered the dirt as the monster was literally plucked apart like a dough puppet in the hands of a small child. It tried to futilely lift its hideous head in retaliation as a final shield hammered it so hard into the ground that Minoru was nearly thrown off his feet.

Not even ten seconds had passed yet the Nomu lay defeated in a rapidly growing puddle of its own unidentifiable fluids. Scary.

"Mmm... This one apparently has no super-regeneration... I might have overdone it a little..."

Was that the voice of their teacher?

"Ms. Argent, you came! Thank you! Ribbit." cheered Asui and Minoru never wanted to agree with something more. At long last someone actually qualified showed up to protect them!

"Where is All Might?" asked the pitifully flat woman sternly, compelling him to speak lest he suffer grievous consequences.

"Uh..." was his eloquent answer which in retrospect might have been worse than saying nothing.

"Doesn't matter now. Gather your classmates and exit the stadium. Stay together and wait for authorities to arrive!" she ordered, already flying off to the next problem that caught her eye.

If Jirou had been able to pay attention to anything beyond the rushing of blood through her sensitive ears then she would have heard Argent murmuring: "Why do I always need to clean up other people's messes?"

~[#҈#]~

Stage two could finally begin! It was a genius strategy created solely by him! This time he would surely not fail. Oh, how proud Sensei would be if he told him that he killed the end boss by himself!

Shigaraki was uncomfortable outside of his standard armour set, but this mission required a stealthier approach. So, dressed as a civilian with baggy clothes and a medical mask he let himself be teleported to the east side of the dungeon where the stupid NPC's had remained safe so far.

Everywhere else Kurogiri had deposited his party members so that they could rile up a mob and aggro the local heroes. Roughly a dozen villains running around spreading chaos and fear among the audience would do that nicely. Ironically that left this side of the stadium vulnerable to the biggest threat of all: Shigaraki himself.

Distracted and confused those idiotic oppressors would be far away from his spawn point when he struck. Only All Might would be fast enough to get to him and then...

Then, victory would be his!

Stepping through the portal to his destination he attempted to hide in the masses, but a painful sensation unexpectedly bloomed in his shoulder.

"Aghh! What the-"

Blood? Did he get shot? That bastard Snipe must be hiding somewhere again! Shit! Why did this NPC have such OP gear? Tomorrow, after he killed All Might, Shigaraki would find a ranged fighter like that to complete his party.

Diving for cover he decided to enact his glorious strategy earlier than planned. There was no use trying to dodge a sniper with bullshit hitscan bullets. Enemies you couldn't see were bad game design in general. So unfair...

In retaliation he pressed his hands on the ground of the spectator stands. Instantly the familiar itching feeling intensified, but it was increased a hundredfold! Decaying the floor strained his quirk to its absolute limits. It was as if scorching magma was flowing through his hands as he bit back the urge to scream. Never before had he attempted to destroy something so large. However he would endure for his Sensei, for a better world, for his dream!

Slowly the area of disintegration widened and some NPCs were catching on to what was happening. Shigaraki though paid them no mind as he kept his hands glued to the fracturing ground. More cracks started to appear and the stage began to quake as its foundations got eroded. The concrete around his hands had long since turned into sand that was slipping through the extending cracks in the building.

"I'll show you... He will save us and then... ugh... I can touch him... The whole world will see the 'Symbol of Peace' turn to... ugh... dust!" he huffed in exertion.

Shigaraki only vaguely registered the screams of the citizens trying not to fall into the void beneath the crumbling stadium. To him their fear sounded like music, but it was not what he was looking for. With trembling arms he forced himself to sit upright on top of his shaking island of disintegrating concrete. He had no fear of falling into the abyss he had created; merely anticipation for the approaching showdown.

Underneath his mask he grinned and gave his best imitation of a frightened NPC: "Help! Help me please!"

As far as he was concerned this was a flawless scheme. And indeed someone came to 'rescue' him, falling right into his magnificent trap! Blond hair, a large smile and...

Wait a second!

The person rushing towards him wasn't All Might!

~[#҈#]~

Nedzu mashed his keyboard in frustration to get a reaction from the sparking machine. Fifteen seconds was all it had taken for the altered security codes to be overwritten and the stadium's system to be destroyed!

He had made extra sure to overhaul the power lines, but the strength of the electro quirk had overwhelmed every defence Powerloader had installed. No ordinary street thug possessed such a powerful ability so either it was the work of a specifically designed Nomu, a mediocre quirk that had been boosted by Trigger or the missing villain "Thunderstorm" was making a comeback.

His arrogance had cost him again! "Stupid!" he chastised himself. But who could have known that four separate fail-saves would not be enough?

Most of his automated defence plans and warning systems were reliant on UA's power grid in some way which was a rather obvious mistake in hindsight. They would need to be outfitted with independent generators in the future. Luckily not every security bot had been connected to the network when disaster struck, because they were randomly patrolling the corridors at the time.

Overall they proved themselves to not be very effective, but they bought enough time for the heroes to arrive and take out the villains that appeared from floating portals of purple mist. Furthermore they were going to be his best proof that UA had not been unprepared. The experimental sniper unit in particular was doing an excellent job at taking out or scaring the villains into submission. Potentially lethal guns in the hands of robots were not something the media would approve of, but with Snipe present at the scene those injuries could be easily explained away.

Nedzu only had access to a few functioning drones, so his coverage of the entire stadium was less than complete, but the pros he could see were doing a splendid job so far at keeping civilian injuries at a minimum while simultaneously quelling the mass hysteria that was breaking out. Although Endeavour looked pretty upset that he could not contribute much due to the many citizens nearby...

His students were another matter entirely. A Nomu had appeared on the field and was attacking the participants of the Cavalry Battle with an animalistic savagery that was only matched by its brutish strength. Fortunately it possessed no higher intelligence to improve upon the strategy it had been programmed with. All the creature could do was flap around with its leathery wings and punch, which to be fair, was still sufficiently dangerous that it needed to be dealt with immediately.

If Nedzu's communications relay wasn't fried then he would have ordered All Might to take care of the rampaging bioweapon already, but the threat to his students was so obvious that he did not think that the number one hero needed encouragement to dispose of it. Yet that left the question: Where the hell was that oaf?

One minute passed and All Might still wasn't showing up anywhere on his video feeds that he was streaming to his laptop. Enough! There was no more time to waste!

Pulling out his mobile phone, he speed-dialled the pro's number and impatiently waited for the other end to pick up.

"Toshiori, where are you?" he hissed.

"Uhm... on the toilet?"

"Stop lying, the situation is urgent!"

"Uh... I kind of forgot the medals in the teachers' lounge? I went to get them now before-"

"Come back here! At once! We are under attack!"

"YES!" answered the deeper voice of All Might's muscle form as he hung up.

What an idiot! Nedzu had specifically told him to stay available throughout the whole event! Maybe this was another result of his arrogance. From now on he would monitor the location of his employees around the clock!

Speaking of the devil, where was Argent?

Oh... It seemed like she already took care of the Nomu in a particularly gruesome fashion. While that demonstrated a worrying affinity for extreme violence it also showed the conviction to fight for UA without holding back. Being so utterly dedicated to protecting her students that she used what many were going to consider 'excessive force' only added to her trustworthiness in Nedzu's eyes.

Still, he was going to sharply question Argent about her notable absence in the last two minutes. Degurechaff was the most unpredictable human he had met in a long time. She was a mystery that needed to be solved urgently!

~[#҈#]~

Himiko watched the TV with bated breath. The dust cloud had obscured much of the spectacle, but it was hard to miss the shining meteor crashing into the earth. Her love looked like an angel raining down fiery retribution on those she judged unworthy! A pleasant tingle ran up Himiko's spine at the image of both of them standing side by side, cleansing the world of all that filth crawling around. Senpai would be her angel in the sky and she would be her demon on the ground! Together they could accomplish anything!

"Ha... Religion can be funny sometimes..." she mused offhandedly.

"Indeed! One could call organized faith the greatest show in human history! However, only in battle is where the true thrill of a grand performance can be found!" proclaimed Marble-Guy.

The masked weirdo called himself "Mr. Compress" and he was apparently a disgraced stage magician with a quirk that could turn nearly anything into small, round stones. He could have been an intimidating criminal if he hadn't completely lost his marbles. Yeesh… Ok, that joke was a bit too corny even for her tastes.

Himiko diverted the topic of the conversation: "Do you see how cute Nomu-chan looks with its guts in the open like that? So awesome! How are you here by the way? Shouldn't you be helping Boss-Man out there?"

"A good entertainer always knows when to make an exit."

"Huh. I already knew you were a coward. That just means I'll have to stab you in the back when the time comes, so you don't run away." she thought.

Not wanting to encourage this pointless exchange any further she snatched the remote and changed the channel to a newsfeed that showed her love in action. Most of these brainless journalists had the audacity to focus on the boring heroes like that grumpy number two (who would forever remain number two as soon as Senpai became number one). Who wanted to see these weaklings?

Ah, there it was! A gorgeous streak of silver zipping around carrying civilians from the collapsing stands to safety. How her shields flickered in and out of existence, supporting pieces of debris or transporting terrified spectators was nothing short of beautiful.

And in the middle of it all sat Shigaraki like a cockroach marring an otherwise exquisite painting. The mentally-handicapped gamer might fool the millions of viewers with his relaxed posture and common street clothes, but she recognized that mob of grimy, greyish-blue hair anywhere. Himiko's nose was very sensitive and the rotten smell that clung to his form had permanently ingrained his dishevelled appearance into her memory.

Her love stabilized his deteriorating platform and went on to slip a barrier beneath him to take the moron to stable ground, but the energy construct fizzled out as soon as it touched him. Huh?

Tanya tried again with similar results and Bad-Touch-Man slowly turned towards her. Damn it, that was not good! Her heart began to beat faster, dreading what was about to happen.

She could not understand what they were saying and the camera angle was too awkward to read their lips, but she would bet that her love was staying true to her serious personality by telling him something like: "Sir, please deactivate your quirk. The situation is under control. You are impairing your own rescue."

Obviously that was not going to work, because he was a villain scum!

Himiko wanted to scream! She wanted to cry! She wanted to warn her beloved!

Instead she numbly watched as the bastard leapt at her with his filthy, abhorrent and unfortunately deadly hands stretched out. Pure horror swept over her as she saw him come closer and closer in almost slow motion.

Tanya recoiled backwards in shock evading his first hand, but the second managed to make contact with her torso. The barrier supporting her midsection dispersed and her uniform underneath turned to ash. Hectically she paddled away, struggling to keep her balance, her normally relaxed expression turned into one of surprise.

Shigaraki apparently cared very little for the rift below him, because he jumped after her with a shout of hatred that even the distant camera microphone was able to catch.

Panicked, the heroine formed another barrier between them, but it materialized a few centimetres too far in front of her, detaching her attacker's fingertips as she moved backwards. Himiko observed with satisfaction how the barely visible chunks of flesh plummeted into the depths together with the man that she hated more than anything in the world at the moment.

The TV did not have to show her the purple fog to know that he was alive though. A corresponding purple portal in the centre of the room spit him out like the piece of garbage that he was and Himiko had to suppress a growl. Her entire willpower was focused on not tearing his throat out right then and there.

"Agh... That bitch! Aghhh... I'll kill her! Aghhh!"

He waved his left hand around, displaying the cleanly cut off stumps where his middle-, index- and ring finger were supposed to be much to Himiko's malicious joy. What better punishment for a barking dog than to lose his teeth?

Seconds later Mist-Man appeared and took him away again, most likely to the ominous Doctor who made the Nomus. Hopefully the hopes of fixing his demented leader were going to be dashed, or at the very least the process would be extraordinarily painful.

Calming her breath, Himiko examined the place where he had fallen. Curiously she went over to the tiny puddle of blood on the floor and sucked it up with one of her many needles. A single drop made it onto her fingertip and she reflexively licked it up.

"Ughhh... bah! Disgusting!"

It tasted worse than he smelled! How was that even possible? Maybe the best way to dispose of his filth was to burn him? She certainly didn't want his remains on her hands! What would Tanya think if she found her elbow deep in such waste?